September 23, 2016
One thing you'll learn if you ever decide to live in rural Wales, and you decide you're comfortable living up to an hour from the town you're actually centered in, is that Wales is full of road side food stands.
In particular, I think it may be required that every household with a patch of land has to have free range chickens, either that or there are native wild chickens roaming 50% of the Welsh countryside. As you cruise along the highways, bi-ways, bridleways, backroads and, yes, hiking paths, you'll be sure to run across at least one unmanned roadside stand selling free range eggs. Some also have selections of jams and jellies, water, herbs, cakes, candies, and once I also saw rhubarb on a stone wall with a sign on it - all paid for by the honor system.
We first got a sample at our second Airbnb stay, a converted goat shed with a lofted bedroom and cast iron stove heating (yay!), which was also part of an organic farm, complete with cows, free range chickens, and a place to fix up old VW buses (which was also the specialty of our first Airbnb stay). In any case, our hosts kept a free range egg stand, complete with a rooster-shaped crockery on the tiny backroad from the B4577 to Llangeitho, and on our first night we got a free sample (they also made us a layer cake, and we got organic tomatoes and cucumbers - but the eggs were wonderful!).
Dear Americans (and anyone else). Free range eggs are amazing. They're so good, that I now make sure to carry change whenever I go anywhere, because I plan on stopping at every road side stand I run across, to sample what they have to offer. Since we got here late in the fall, and I don't think anyone wants to buy frozen eggs they find on the side of the road, I suspect I won't have much more to choose from until spring.
But I will continue to carry my spare change in hopes of finding the best Welsh egg ever (and probably in the meantime finding some decent preserves as well).
Link to Roadstand I
Link to Roadstand(ish) II: Dyfi Distillery
